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This burned-out industrial property at 1415 Mylert Avenue is among the first group of properties to be sold by the Lackawanna Counuty Land Bank. It will become part of the project to rehabilitate the nearby Scranton Lace Works. (Michael J. Mullen / Staff Photographer)

Lackawanna County’s new land bank began to pay dividends to the community last week.

Using the power vested in the authority by an innovative state law, the land bank authority transferred a variety of properties in a variety of different ways, eliminating legal and administrative obstacles that otherwise might have forced the properties to remain blighted, or allowed them to slip into blight.

In one case, homeowner Thomas Preambo of North Scranton was able to acquire two abandoned parcels near his home on Dean Street, which he has maintained for years, for $200. In another, the land bank leased five West Scranton properties for six months, for $1, to NeighborWorks of Northeastern Pennsylvania, which rehabilitates homes for occupancy by low-income families. Likewise, the Hill Neighborhood Association was given a $1 lease on four properties. The HNA plans to create small parks or find other neighborhood-enhancing uses for the properties.

Positive neighborhood impact

Those transactions demonstrate the power of the land bank to help improve residential neighborhoods. The properties can be converted into assets that stabilize neighborhoods rather than components of blight.

Another of the bank’s initial transactions demonstrates its power to contribute to economic development. Lace Building Affiliates LLP, a developer attempting to convert the historic Scranton Lace Works into a residential/commercial “village,” acquired a burned-out adjacent property for $10,000.

The bank also approved 15 other property transactions in Scranton, most of which will enable city residents to help improve their neighborhoods. In some cases, the transactions will create a further benefit for the community by returning abandoned properties to tax rolls.

In the short time since Lackawanna County created the land bank last year, it has begun to prove that it is a fine instrument of innovative public policy.

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